Revamping Professional Development for Technology Integration and Fluency

Plair, S. K. (2008). Revamping Professional Development for Technology Integration and Fluency. Clearing House, 82(2), 70-74.

This The article states that many identified barriers continue to prevail in technology integration and fluency, but not for lack of teachers' trying but because of the overwhelming nature of technology. The author of this article introduces the idea of having a knowledge broker or technology coach who becomes the go between for teachers between the constantly changing technological innovations. The author also states the importance of these brokers to provide a different level of professional development to support teachers of all ability levels. In reflection, I love how this author stated that veteran teachers are not to blame. So often, we cast fault to them for the inability to integration technology but we do this without supporting them or allowing them the opportunity to make it an authentic learning experience. The author state that teachers crave a constant support person, in close proximity and available to fill in the gaps that arise with the rapid changes associated with technology. I believe that this is true with teacher of all ages, it goes back to the statement of "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember". Teachers crave that immediate feedback, that opportunity to explore a new idea with an expert in the room. The final key point I enjoyed from this article is that allowing teachers to fumble along implementing technology experiences haphazardly is no longer productive or effective. Teachers need training and support! One last quote from the text that I find to be of importance is as follows, "Waiting for new teachers to enter the system as  solution is risky. Many of today's preservice teachers are the product of technologically illiterate teachers." I believe this is an excellent point! We must provide training and support regardless of the age or experience of the teacher and knowledge brokers or tech coaches are a great resources to start with. 

I 

T

Blood, sweat, and TEARS: 50 Years of Technology Implemation Obstacles

Leggett, W. P., & Persichitte, K. A. (1998). Blood, sweat, and TEARS: 50 years of technology implementation obstacles. TechTrends, 43(3), 33-36.

According to the article, teachers have faced significant obstacles in their attempts to implement and integrate technology in their classroom. The article goes on to state that these obstacles have remained unchanged for the last 50 years. In the mid-1990, the following barriers were identified in integrating technology: Time, Expertise, Access, Resources, and Support. The article provides a table of implementation factors, obstacles to technology implementation in the classroom, and possible solutions.

While this article was wrote in 1998, the content of the article is very relevant. The obstacles provided are still current. Teachers still face obstacle with lack of time, lack of personal and professional technology skills, lack of fiscal resources, and lack of technical support. The article provides possible solutions to each obstacle as well. A quote I found interesting from that article is as follows, "Additionally, we believe that enthusiastic teachers who possess the critical factors of time, expertise, and access will provide the catalyst for innovation and change in the classroom." Teachers often meet unrealistic expectations with limited resources due to their enthusiasm and drive.  

Wearable: Has the Age of Smartwatches Finally Arrived?

Rawassizadeh, R., Price, B. A., & Petre, M. (2015). Wearables: Has the age of smartwatches finally arrived?. Communications of the ACM, 58(1), 45-47.

In summary, his article discusses the market and demands of Smartwatches as well as the constraints and advantages. The article states that idea of Smartwatches is not new, it has been around since the middle of the 20th century. The idea of Smartwatches started in science fiction and then in the 1970s we saw the first LED and LCD watches. At this time, technology was too expensive and not powerful enough to provide the needed functionality so the idea failed. The article goes on to discuss the market for Smartwatches, that while they won't replace Smartphones they will coexist just as the tablet has not replaced the laptop. Two major constraints for Smartwatches mentioned in the article are screen size and battery life. Developers are still working to improve this areas including exploration into curved screens that would curve around the wrist. The article also gave two major advantages for Smartwatches. Smartwatches are body mounted, therefore users can free up their hands. Another benefit of being body mounted is that the device is located in the same consistent location for sensors to measure physical activity. Constant skin contact is another advantage listed, with constant contact your Smartwatch can better read your physical activities and location.

In reflection, the advances in technology are truly amazing. An idea that began in science fiction has now become a reality. I personally own an Apple Smartwatch, I have previously owned a Fitbit as well. As the article mentions, these devices do persuade users to live a more healthy lifestyle. The devices allow users to set goals, challenge peers, and track their every movement, heart rate, and workouts. Something I found to be interesting was that most Smartwatches have the capability to record your private information such as sensitive medical information and your weaknesses. As discussed in class today, it's a little scary to think about what developers are doing with this sensitive information and who it's being shared with.

Let Them Take Control

Ramsay, J. D. (2015). LET THEM TAKE CONTROL. Reading Today, 32(6), 38-39.

Julie Ramsay states in her article that as teachers we often reflect on our teaching and seek out ways to improve our practice. She goes on to discuss that in her own reflections, they often lead her to her own school-aged memories of anxiety and an eagerness to achieve good grades. Today's students are not all that different. Julie goes on to state that she decided to open up discussion in her classroom with her students on expectations and grades. Her students stated that they often weren't sure why there being assessed or how they were being assessed. Her students weren't taking ownership of their academic tasks because they saw no value in what they were doing. Julie goes on to state that by opening up the conversation she was able to make changes. She now has her students dissect standards, asking themselves what do I need to know or be able to demonstrate to show mastery of this standard. By giving students control, they are taking ownership of their work and learning. 

 In my own reflection of my teaching practices and earliest school memories, I too aim to ease my students' anxiety about school. I stride for my classroom to be a safe community for my students where they can feel encouraged to try new things and make mistakes. In reflection of Julie's article, I see I have an area of improvement to make. On the daily I'm collecting data toward my students' Individual Education Plans and documenting. This data and documentation is critical to allow me to report on student progress and to guide my instruction. However, when collecting this data I don't always share this data with my students. I praise and cheer for my students when they advance a reading level or make progress towards these goals but I don't always invite my students in to their goals. My older students grades 3-5, we conference on academic goals. We create graphs to track progress and set short-term goals to achieve their goals. In reflection of this article, this fall I will start this conferencing with all my students. Empowering them to see what their goals are and showing the connection to what we do everyday to achieve these goals. 

Juli 

Can I use this App or Website for My Class?

Miller, B. (2016). Can I Use This App or Website for My Class?. Knowledge Quest, 44(4), 22-29.

This question is frequently asked by educators all across the country. According to this article, this question is indeed a difficult question to answer. The article suggest to take into consider the grade level, students ages, and the website/app restrictions when deciding if you can use an app or website in the classroom. Additional considerations should include the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

The article suggests a good resource for teachers when faced with this question is your school’s librarian. According to the article, school librarians should be in the know on rules on CIPA and COPPA and know where to find the age limitations for any website and associated app. School Librarians should also help keep students safe online through educating students about digital citizenship, their digital footprints, cyberbullying, cybersafety, and general caution when using the Internet. A great resource mentioned in the article is Common Sense Media. Oh this webpage, parents and educators can review ratings of Apps, websites, and other digital forms of media. The ratings are given by Common Sense Media as well as teacher’s reviews. The webpage also provides free, online lesson plans on teaching students about digital citizenship.

While this article provides great information to consider, I also believe that it is an educator’s responsibility to research websites and Apps they would like to use in their classrooms. If I was considering using a website in my classroom I would consult with our school’s librarian and our IT assistant on what content the website would be collecting and the age requirement. I believe that it is also my responsibility to read the Privacy settings as stated on webpages and Apps prior to downloading. I am responsible for keeping my students safe online when they are in my classroom. I will also be looking into using Common Sense Media’s digital citizenship lesson plans to introduce internet safety in my classroom. I currently use Common Sense Media when considering which video to play as a classroom reward. The webpage gives a detailed rating on movies and states what audience they would be appropriate for.  In conclusion, I believe with all of us working together as a team: parents, librarians, educators, IT directors, our students are better protected and educated about Internet safety. 

How could Open Education Resources Cause Changes in Schools?

The Department of Education defines Open Education Resources as teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under a license that permits their free use, reuse, modification, and sharing with others. This idea really isn’t all that different from the mantra we’re taught during student teaching; beg, borrow, and steal from other teachers. Our colleagues and other educators are our greatest resources in the education world. I have learned more during my teaching experiences and discussions with other professionals then in the four years of my undergraduate.

There will always be positives and negatives to every situation that brings change. A few positive changes in OER would be: students are able to access information from anywhere at any time, multiple times. There is no limit of access to information for students. Students are able to receive information in a timely manner, no longer are they waiting for current events to be published in textbooks. Open education resources could also be used to replace textbooks which would help to eliminate textbook costs for school districts.

 However for the past five years, I have been working on a curriculum committee for our district to write the English Language Arts Curriculum. It has been a struggle to build a curriculum from the ground up with little to no resources. While our district is saving money on textbook expenses, I can guarantee our cost of copiers; paper, ink, and copy repairs are through the roof. We are constantly searching for materials to use to create our curriculum, not just to supplement. I know what you’re thinking, if you’re creating a curriculum in the 21^st Century, what are you doing waiting in the world’s longest line at the copier? Wellllll, even with money saved from textbooks, we still don’t have the funds to provide devices to each student. Our devices consist of two computer carts with laptops that you can check out during blocked off class periods. Even when checking out computer carts for a lesson, there’s no guarantee the Internet will be a willing participate in your lesson. The struggle can be too real. Hence, why most teachers are at the copier… most know they can’t depend on the tech. Not just that, but when working with a close read, for me nothing beats a physical copy. My learning style requires that I highlight, annotate, and use close reading marks to comprehend information. It’s part of our job to assist students in identifying their individual learning styles and adapting curriculum to meet those needs.

I don’t believe that there is a one size fits all in education. In my opinion, Open Education Resources are great to supplement and modify curriculum. OER should not be used as the primary curriculum just as a textbook shouldn’t be either. As a special education teacher the name of the game for me is to modify, adjust, and personalize learning to meet the needs of my students. I do this through curriculum I create, online resources, and pieces from previous textbooks. Teachers have always been creative and capable of creating something more for their students. Why limit them to just one tool?

Information was obtained from:

The Department of Education https://tech.ed.gov/open/

Helpful Websites for Teachers

In the Podcast below, I list a few of my favorite websites that I use all the time as a teacher! Feel free to check them out, if you have any websites you enjoy using please list them in the comments below!

   
Record and upload audio >>

Teaching Young Readers to Navigate a Digital Story When Rules Keep Changing

Javorsky, K., & Trainin, G. (2014). Teaching Young Readers to Navigate a Digital Story When Rules Keep Changing. Reading Teacher, 67(8), 606-618. doi:10.1002/trtr.1259

This article provides great insights on the use of digital story applications with young readers versus traditional paper book stories. The authors of this article conducted a study of digital story apps and their differences as well as strategies to teach young readers on how to navigate these differences. The study findings suggests that young readers need to master book handling skills and the use of print features present in paper books first before mastering them in digital stories.

                The article suggests creating a classroom culture of openness to change. With technology ever changing in the world we live in, it is important to teach students to adapt and be willing to seek changes. Digital story applications vary in icons and narrative features. It’s important to provide a think-aloud and demonstrate to students how to navigate their way through digital stories prior to exposing them independently. It’s also important to teach young readers the importance of following along with narrative features, whether it is through highlighted text or a single word highlighted. Teaching students the basics of turning pages and interacting with text is also important.

                An important take-away I had from this article is to teach students the process of reading a digital story. There are many benefits to digital stories including providing students with opportunities to listen to stories independently and increase their vocabulary through highlighted audio text. The article highlights the importance of walking students through the process of opening the app, selecting the correct narrative icon, demonstrating tracking highlighted text, and turning pages. While reading this article, I thought of how to apply this to my teaching and I would project the digital story on the SmartBoard in my classroom so I could easily display the story and icons. I could then easily walk my students through a think-aloud on the process and showcase more than one kind of digital story. By doing this, my students will become more open to exploring and initiating icons across different digital story applications.

How to Create a Board on Pinterest

Interested in creating a Pinterest Board? Check out this Screencast on how to create a board and pin your 1st pin!

ClassDojo Goes Beyond Behavioral Rewards and into “Growth Mindset”

ClassDojo Goes Beyond Behavioral Rewards and into 'Growth Mindset'. (2016). Curriculum Review, 56(1), 5.

ClassDojo is a free communication app designed for in the classroom. It has been designed to help teachers manage classroom behaviors through fun monster characters. It also connects teachers, parents, and students who use it to share photos, videos, and messages through the school day. The makers of ClassDojo recently started offering short video lessons on “growth mindset” featuring the same monster cartoon characters.

 According to the article, “The growth mindset originated from Stanford University psychologist, Carol Dwek, who found that children are more likely to succeed if they believe that intelligence is developed through hard work and effort rather than something fixed at birth.” The ClassDojo Company worked directly with Dweck’s lab at Stanford to ensure that videos and lessons they offer are in line with “growth mindset” research. It’s also provided a link for the researchers directly into the classroom. The article also includes a testimony from a first grade teacher in Florida and the successes her classroom has had from viewing the growth mindset videos. She stated that, soon the children started following behaviors modeled by the characters. Her students would watch videos where the characters would work through problems such as trying and failing and it would show her students how to respond.

I currently use ClassDojo in an after school program, The Hub Project. All of the teachers in the after school program use ClassDojo to log attendance and as a behavior rewards program. ClassDojo has many wonderful resources that we use to connect to students and parents. Parents are given access codes at the beginning of the program and they can log in and see their child’s behavior during the Hub program. Parents can also directly message teachers through the App so classroom communication is seamless. ClassDojo can also be used for behavior tracking and reports. Teachers have the ability to create a donut graph or spreadsheet with the data. The data is then able to be printed and added to students’ files.  The growth mindset videos also tie in perfectly with our District’s professional development on Eric Jensen’s Teaching with Poverty in Mind. As a District we are working to change brains and growth mindset. ClassDojo’s growth mindset videos are perfect for teaching kids about perseverance, gratitude, and empathy. They also teach students about the power of YET and the magic of making mistakes. I would highly recommend ClassDojo to elementary and middle school teachers as well as after school program teachers as a classroom behavior rewards system, parent/home connection, as well as resources for growth mindset. 

5 Ways Teachers Are Opening Up the World to Special Education Through Technology

Meyer, L. (2016). 5 Ways Teachers are Opening Up the World to Special Education Through Technology. T H E Journal, 43(2), 6-8

On September 17^th, 2015, Global Collaboration Day, students with special needs from Sweden, Germany, Finland, South Africa, and the United States were able to share videos with each other introducing themselves and their schools. This event was planned by their special education teachers who met at a conference. The event was called the SMARTee Project. The students used SMART Amp technology to collaborate online and to teach each other about their local cultural traditions and events. The article then goes on to tell about different online global collaboration projects and how these projects are having a successful impact on students with special needs.

As the article states, teachers who work with special needs students are finding that technology can not only broaden their student’s experiences but engage them in learning, help them retain information, improve their socialization, and boost their self-esteem. I agree completely with this statement as a special education teacher myself. This article goes on to tell about the successes students have experienced with having discovered online global collaboration projects. Students who struggle with verbal communication and face-to-face socialization are feeling more engaged in conversations and the learning process through these online classrooms. The article gives a few different examples of global collaboration projects such as: the Summer Math Photo Challenge, where students post photos to illustrate weekly math concepts and the Global read aloud, where students around the world read the same book and connect online. There were many more examples of global collaborative projects in this article. The article also provides a source of free online educational resources, The Global Virtual Classroom.

I love the idea of students being able to collaborate and engage in conversations with students of varying cultural backgrounds. The article discusses the successes students feel with being able to express themselves clearly through picture clues and text translations. The article also gives an alternative, to use Twitter. Prior to this class, I had a Twitter account but wasn’t sure how to use it and I definitely didn’t know how to use in my classroom. After the experience I’ve had with Twitter, our classroom discussions, and this article- I would be interested in trying a global collaborative project on Twitter. I would be especially interested in doing a book club, where students read the same book and then respond to peers through a blog or twitter account. The possibilities are endless with technology!

Future Ready Framework and the 9 Gears

In reflection of the Future Ready Framework, I was very pleased that personalized student learning is at the center of the gears. As a special education teacher everything I do is personalized to student learning. I often create my own curriculum and lessons to best meet the needs of my students. Also, as a special education teacher I have a unique role of seeing students year after year. I have the privilege of watching children grow year to year and see their interests change. Annual Review season is my favorite time of year when I get to reflect with parents on how much their child has grown and changed through the course of one year. We often reminisce on their child’s growth through the years. An example that comes to mind is when I had a kindergarten student who loved Spiderman; anyway that I could incorporate Spiderman into the lesson was a win for this child. We would do everything from counting spiders to reading sight words on spider webs, anyway that I could incorporate his favorite things into the instruction it made the lesson a 100x more engaging for him. With personalized student learning as the center, it’s closely related to the gear that is most important to me, Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment.

Future ready Schools defines the following elements for this gear as:

·         21^st Century Skills/Deeper Learning

·         Personalized Learning

·         Collaborative, Relevant, and Applied Learning

·         Leveraging Technology

·         Assessment- Analytics Inform Instruction

The two elements that are the most important to me are personalized learning and collaborative, relevant, and applied learning. As previously stated, personalized learning is the name of the game for my position. I’m constantly creating personalized materials and instruction to best support my students. I’m also continuously demonstrating the relevance of what we’re doing to everyday life. I would love to incorporate personalized learning through technology into my classroom. The difficulty for this in my classroom is inconsistent internet connection. Often our tech is in need of updates or has difficulty connecting to the Wifi. This can be extremely frustrating. The article states, the need of access to devices and high-speed networks and broadband both at school and beyond. This is definitely a need for our school as we continue to move forward into the future. 

“What is one time saving tech-nique you have found or learned?”

David Progue was very knowledgeable and entertaining to listen to in his Ted! I very much enjoyed listening to his Ted Talk about the 10 top time-saving tech tips. I also enjoyed his statement in the beginning about how no one is really taught how to use technology, we’re just given computers and expected to learn.  A lot of the tips he shared are tips that I have found out for myself through playing around on my computer. I’m positive my students have also taken time to explore and could teach me a trick or two on time-saving tips. I would like to share this list of time-saving tips with my students. I think if they haven’t already discovered them, they would thoroughly enjoy using them, especially the text replacing tip.

The tip that I found to be most useful was tip #10, how to black out a PowerPoint or Keynote slide. Often when presenting information, your audience whether its students or colleagues are more focused on the slides behind you then on you and the information you are presenting. I thought his tip to press the letter B to blackout the screen was a good tip. You can temporarily black out the screen when you need your audience to focus their attention on you and then double click B again to resume the slideshow.

                A time saving tech-nique that I found on my own is to export PowerPoint slides into a PDF to allow for easier download and printing. I often create my own materials for class using Microsoft PowerPoint but when I select print, it will only print horizontally, often cutting off half of my project. I’m sure there is a way to fix this; I just haven’t found it yet! So in the meantime, I just select export to PDF and save to my desktop. I am then able to open the PDF and print the page as I had intended to. This was a little trick that saved me many trips to the copier only to discover that only half of my page printed. If anyone has any other suggestions on how to change printer settings in PowerPoint, I’d love to hear them! 

Article Reflection #1

Tips for Using Interactive Whiteboards to Increase Participation of Students with Disabilities

APA Citation: Whitby, P. S., Leininger, M. L., & Grillo, K. (2012). Tips for Using Interactive Whiteboards to Increase Participation of Students With Disabilities. Teaching Exceptional Children, 44(6), 50-57.

The article recommends that students with disabilities' instruction be interactive, engaging ,and provide opportunities for social interaction. Most classrooms' instruction is delivered via spoken language which has proven to be challenging for students with disabilities in receptive and expressive language as well as students with attention concerns. The article walks us through a co-taught science lesson and how the teachers designed the lesson with the use of an interactive whiteboard. The tips are focused on how to break the lesson into chunks from grabbing students' attention with a short sound bite that focuses attention on the learning objective to an avatar that restates the lesson's objective for the student to restate to a partner using their own words. Other tips include using video and pictures to activate prior knowledge and to introduce vocabulary. In the core of the lesson, students break into centers for exploration and stimulation. The class is then brought back together for questioning responses using clickers for real-time data on student's learning. Students then continue to rotate while teachers provide feedback though coaching opportunities. Teachers must provide specific feedback and praise while students are actively engaged in exploration. Following engaging exploration, teachers use varied assessment strategies to collect data on student achievement. Students can engage in team work and submit in-time vocabulary activities including Poll Everywhere or Wordle. The final tip was to refine the lesson. Teachers must not only monitor the academic achievement but also the social interaction, response to questions, attention to task, and comprehension of the materials. The article provides recommendations to use in your classroom through the tips but also the article provides links to resources. The article provides a table of websites that support the use of interactive whiteboards. The article also includes a table for websites that provides lesson planning and planning resources online. 

In reflection, I plan to use the first tip mentioned, using a short sound bite to gain attention before stating the learning objective. This provides students with a quick transition to the next subject and gains attention before stating the purpose of the lesson. I plan to use this with my reading groups this week. I also plan to use the third tip of anchoring activities with videos, photos, or multimedia. This tip suggests using photos to engage prior knowledge and also to use pictures to preview vocabulary. My final take away from this article is the following quote from the article, "As technology evolves, teachers must embrace these changes in order to find creative ways to support and improve learning." This quote to me states that while teaching and technology are always changing, as a teacher I must  embrace these changes and use my creativity to best support and improve learning for my students. This article has inspired me to take a more creative look at how I present lessons to my students.